The government of the state of Queensland in Australia is looking for a greener source of energy in the form of geothermal power. Queensland has the largest abundance of geothermal energy in Australia and a governement which is actively looking to incoperate it in its energy package for the future.
Queensland is the second largest state in Australia by area and third largest by population, this combination has allowed the Ministry of Mines and Energy to open up 10 new areas totaling 5400 square kilometres for exploration. Calls had been made for tenders on the land last year, the parcels of land are also in many geographical distant areas of the state. It is expected that exploration will have to go down to a depth of 3 kilometres to reach the 200 degree celsisus hot rocks needed to extract energy in a sustainable manner.
The Minister of Mines and Energ Geoff Wilson was quoted as saying: "Electricity generation from geothermal energy is very environmentally friendly," "This form of renewable energy could underpin a non-fossil-fuel-based economy of the future” and that is was quote " in keeping with the State Government's energy policy to source electricity generation from conventional and renewable energy sources.”
At current three forms of geothermal energy come into question for power generation, direct tapping of hot water from the Great Artesian Basin, hot dry rocks which lie 3-5 kilometres below gorund, and hot springs which have a lower tempature then the two other methods.
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